#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: HAMMER HORROR HUGS AND KISSES : A CHILLING GALLERY PART ONE

GREAT KISSES WE HAVE KNOWN SEEN AND LOVED....!

I GUESS IF YOU ARE SETTLING DOWN to watch a romantic love story on dvd or at the local flicks, you are already primed to the risk of your delicate and sensitive emotions being titillated by the occasional embrace, hug, squeeze, kiss or as we Brits subtly refer to it, 'a snog'. But what if was the mid 1950's, and you are watching a horror film?? OK, RKO's King Kong got away with murder with Fay Wray, but for many years, in the UK the censors keep a very careful eye on films, and especially in regard of mixing horror, violence, sex and lusting, even if one of the participants did have huge teeth ..and had been dead for 200 years!

FOR MANY YEARS, those who liked their horrors and thrillers, dusted with more than the accidental brushing of hands or furtive glances, Hammer films could and did test the boundaries. Hammer films certainly woke up the sleepy British cinema going public with Cushing and Lee's 'The Curse of Frankenstein' in 1957 and kept the censors on their toes. When in 1958, Hammer released 'Dracula / The Horror of Dracula', the BFC and John Trevillion, sniffed,  twitched, and then SNIPPED, at Christopher Lee's all embracing seduction of Melissa Stribling's Mina Holmwood. Not until 2013, was the footage reinstalled. Viewing today, you can still see why Trevillion and company thought it steamy stuff!

 

HOWEVER, not all of Hammer films romantic wrestling's were of the high voltage vintage. Hammer films script writers Jimmy Sangster and Anthony Hinds (John Elder) KNEW the guys in the audience were there for the monsters, the girls for the thrills and as Cushing himself once said, 'When courting couples came to see our films, and the young girl became frightened or tense, the couple would cuddle up'!' So Hammer knew what the audiences expected and made sure, every film had a little 'something' ...somewhere.

Here we present the first gallery of our 'hand picked' small selection of stills and GIFS depicting some of the best romantic chemistry from Hammer's films. They are not all marquee titles, or indeed Hammer films and some of the pairings were about saucy as a vicar's tea party, but hey, the title says 'Hugs and Kisses' I have to make sure what's on the label, is also in the can.... well almost, part two soon!

THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS : Peter Cushing and June Laverick.

 

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MINA THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY! MELISSA STRIBLING REMEMBERED

REMEMBERING: Melissa Stribling who was born today November 7th 1927. Stribling appeared in just the one film with Peter Cushing...but boy did she pick the right one! She also got to play in one of Hammer films most iconic scenes in their 1958 'Dracula', where Christopher Lee's Count, in the dead of night, visits her home and..without a word.. seduces her. The scene is so super charged with sexual tension, it almost crackles off the screen and as a result got the scissors treatment from the censors at the time.

In 2013, in Hammer's restored print the exorcised footage was replaced, giving us the full picture of what Director Terence Fisher, Stribling and Lee had originally intended and created.